How to delete all files and folders in a folder by cmd call

I use Windows.

I want to delete all files and folders in a folder by system call.

I may call like that:

>rd /s /q c:\destination
>md c:\destination

Do you know an easier way?

No, I don't know one.

If you want to retain the original directory for some reason (ACLs, &c.), and instead really want to empty it, then you can do the following:

del /q destination\*
for /d %x in (destination\*) do @rd /s /q "%x"

This first removes all files from the directory, and then recursively removes all nested directories, but overall keeping the top-level directory as it is (except for its contents).

Note that within a batch file you need to double the % within the for loop:

del /q destination\*
for /d %%x in (destination\*) do @rd /s /q "%%x"

del c:\destination\*.* /s /q worked for me. I hope that works for you as well.

I think the easiest way to do it is:

rmdir /s /q "C:\FolderToNotToDelete\"

The last "" in the path is the important part.

Yes! Use Powershell:

powershell -Command "Remove-Item 'c:\destination\*' -Recurse -Force"

If the subfolder names may contain spaces you need to surround them in escaped quotes. The following example shows this for commands used in a batch file.

set targetdir=c:\example
del /q %targetdir%\*
for /d %%x in (%targetdir%\*) do @rd /s /q ^"%%x^"

To delete file:

del PATH_TO_FILE

To delete folder with all files in it:

rmdir /s /q PATH_TO_FOLDER

To delete all files from specific folder (not deleting folder itself) is a little bit complicated. del /s *.* cannot delete folders, but removes files from all subfolder. So two commands are needed:

del /q PATH_TO_FOLDER\*.*
for /d %i in (PATH_TO_FOLDER\*.*) do @rmdir /s /q "%i"

You can create a script to delete whatever you want (folder or file) like this mydel.bat:

@echo off
setlocal enableextensions

if "%~1"=="" (
    echo Usage: %0 path
    exit /b 1
)

:: check whether it is folder or file
set ISDIR=0
set ATTR=%~a1
set DIRATTR=%ATTR:~0,1%
if /i "%DIRATTR%"=="d" set ISDIR=1

:: Delete folder or file
if %ISDIR%==1 (rmdir /s /q "%~1") else (del "%~1")
exit /b %ERRORLEVEL%

Few example of usage:

mydel.bat "path\to\folder with spaces"
mydel.bat path\to\file_or_folder

One easy one-line option is to create an empty directory somewhere on your file system, and then use ROBOCOPY (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc733145.aspx) with the /MIR switch to remove all files and subfolders. By default, robocopy does not copy security, so the ACLs in your root folder should remain intact.

Also probably want to set a value for the retry switch, /r, because the default number of retries is 1 million.

robocopy "C:\DoNotDelete_UsedByScripts\EmptyFolder" "c:\temp\MyDirectoryToEmpty" /MIR /r:3

I had an index folder with 33 folders that needed all the files and subfolders removed in them. I opened a command line in the index folder and then used these commands:

for /d in (*) do rd /s /q "%a" & (
md "%a")

I separated them into two lines (hit enter after first line, and when asked for more add second line) because if entered on a single line this may not work. This command will erase each directory and then create a new one which is empty, thus removing all files and subflolders in the original directory.

Navigate to the parent directory

Line1 pushd "Parent Directory"

Delete the sub folders

Line2 rd /s /q . 2>nul

https://superuser.com/questions/173859/how-can-i-delete-all-files-subfolders-in-a-given-folder-via-the-command-prompt

It takes 2 simple steps. [/q means quiet, /f means forced, /s means subdir]

1. Empty out the directory to remove

   del *.* /f/s/q  
   

2. Remove the directory

   cd ..
   rmdir dir_name /q/s
   

try this, this will search all MyFolder under root dir and delete all folders named MyFolder

for /d /r "C:\Users\test" %%a in (MyFolder\) do if exist "%%a" rmdir /s /q "%%a"

del .\*

This Command delete all files & folders from current navigation in your command line.